Native American ProjectBy; Sarenity Farmer

Hello fellow Senators, my name is John Wilson and I am one of the many American citizens that are concerned for the Native Americans. The reason I am caring about the Natives is because they were here first, we need to become accustomed to their culture and civilize according to them. It’s not fair that we destroy everything they built. I understand that we have different beliefs than them about our land but they worked hard for what they have, we can’t just take it away from them. I know this isn’t really my place to discuss but if we don’t try to work with them then they may attack and start a war but it’ll be our faults if a war breaks out because we are taking everything away from them.

The first problem I am seeing is violence, I see some time down the road there is going to be a lot of violence if we keep going the way we have. Natives were here first so naturally this is their home if we destroy it or take it away from them then they will fight back. We don’t want that do we? Also along with Natives being violent I can see that us white citizens are becoming violent towards the Natives too. We must stop the violence before it starts. Next problem I can see coming is trying to determine if the Natives are natural born citizens or if they have to go through a process to become citizens. In the fourteenth amendment it states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” So according to this Natives are natural born citizens, so shouldn’t we treat them as such? There are many other problems between the Natives and Whites but the last one I am going to address is about the valuable resources that are found on the Natives Land. Yes, the Natives have lots of valuable resources such as coal and oil but we should not destroy their homes just to get to those resources. Destroying their homes just to get the resources may end up in a war.

I have seen the government try to fix these problems but have not done so efficiently and in a way that will fix the problems. For example, the “Dawes Act” tried to eliminate Natives all together but all that did was create conflict between Whites and Natives. Teaching White people to hate the Natives contradicts what the civil war was about, it contradicts ending slavery because instead of whites against blacks it is whites against Natives. Along with trying to eliminate Natives the “Dawes Act” also takes the Natives and puts them onto their own separate land but in order for the Natives to own that little bit of land they have to become U.S. citizens but the Fourteenth Amendment states that whoever is born in the U.S. is already a citizen. Natives were there first so they are already citizens.

I have a couple ideas how we can fix this, if you allow me to help that is. If we can get the Natives and Whites to live and mix their lives together the only problem I see with that is Natives live differently than us White people but all we have to do is be understanding and try to learn their ways of life along with them learning our ways of lives. We all really need to get along and accept everyone for their different views and ways of life. Treat everyone equally is what I am really trying to say. Whites should get the same treatment as Natives and vice versa. With treating them equally that should solve two of my three problems and my next solution should solve the third problem I addressed. The next solution is trading, if we trade with the Natives for their valuable resources on their land and we stay honest I don’t see any problems with that besides running out of those resources but when the resources run out either the trading will end or find something else to trade between the Natives and Whites.